Flagger David Christ puts his finger in his ear to keep out the sound of the loud train horn as he guards the A Line train crossing at York street between East 40th Ave. and East 41st Ave. on Aug. 27, 2018 in Denver. Christ said this is the first day working as a flagger and he forgot to bring ear protection. He vowed to bring them tomorrow.

“It’s highly disappointing, as it indicates there’s going to be further delay of the G-Line,” Arvada Mayor Marc Williams said of the fact that flaggers have been back at some A-Line crossings for the last week or so. “It seems like it just keeps getting pushed out further and further.”

The G-Line was originally set to begin carrying passengers in the autumn of 2016. But the line has been delayed by gate timing issues on the A-Line, which uses the same gate crossing technology.

The A-Line, which links downtown Denver to Denver International Airport, has been able to operate under a special waiver from federal regulators, as RTD’s contractor Denver Transit Partners struggles with the complex task of integrating a wireless signaling system with positive train control, a safety technology that Congress has mandated for railroads.

Williams said residents have been sending him nasty messages demanding he use his power as mayor to silence the horns, which test trains along the 11-mile line are required to sound every time they cross an at-grade street. Horns are activated until the early morning hours, he said.

“The train horns are making life miserable,” Williams said.

Nowhere has that been truer than along the A-Line, which started service in the spring of 2016, but still requires its trains to blast their horns through each crossing more than two years on. Harry Doby, who has endured the cacophony for the nearly two years he has lived in his Park Hill home, said the aggravation level among his neighbors has hit new heights.

“We’re frustrated, confused and we don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said Monday. “I’m throwing up my hands and saying, ‘This is never going to end.'”

But according to an internal RTD email obtained by The Denver Post on Monday, the Federal Railroad Administration took note earlier this month when a G-Line test train reached a crossing ahead of the safety gates’ minimum 20-second warning time. The incident triggered the agency to order reinstatement of flaggers at three A-Line crossings — York/Josephine, Steele and Holly streets — and the lone crossing on the B-Line, which serves Westminster.

“A safety critical software problem was identified in the wireless activation system for all 13 crossings on the G-line and three crossings on the A-line and one crossing on the B-line,” FRA spokesman Marc Willis said Monday in a statement. “The FRA has required RTD use crossing attendants at those crossings until the issue is resolved.”

It’s not clear why the incident on the G-Line affected just some of the crossings on the A-Line and the one B-Line crossing, and a request for clarification from RTD and FRA did not get a response. Nor would either agency provide a timeline for when the new crop of flaggers might be dismissed, which must occur before progress can resume on establishing quiet zones and getting the G-Line ready for revenue service.

Doby isn’t holding his breath. The Park Hill resident said he’d love to see the flaggers’ new assignment last only a couple of weeks but he isn’t confident. On Monday, he said he was stopped in his car by gates that descended at an A-Line crossing but that no train ever rolled through.

“I think we’re going to be living with these issues indefinitely — until there is an upgrade and a redesign,” he said.

Originally from Boston, John Aguilar covers Denver's suburbs for The Denver Post, where he has worked since April 2014. He has also worked at the Boulder County Business Report, the Rocky Mountain News and the Boulder Daily Camera.

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